stolmen and jarpen bookshelves

lucian marries the stolmen with jarpen for a wall of good-looking bookshelves.

“after searching for months for the perfect modern, open bookshelves, i noticed the stolmen line. but the shelves seemed too weak to hold hundreds of pounds of books. not to mention two young boys and the occasional earth quake. so, i modified them quite a bit.

for the shelves, i used jarpen shelves because they are nice and thick and are of good quality oak veneer. the only problem with this is that the shelves are in different widths than the stolmen drawers, so i was not able to mix in a few drawers.

for the middle brackets, i used two double ended brackets. i did this because i was worried that a single bracket may not be able to hold the weight of both shelves. especially if my son climbed them like a ladder. i had to put a bolt through the brackets and shelf board to lock the brackets and shelf together as a system.

i wanted the shelves to look light and simple so i screwed an extruded aluminum L shaped strip to the wall. when the shelf is set on the aluminum L strip, it covers the portion screwed to the wall so it becomes almost invisible.

the whole thing took quite some time to put together. measurements have to be pretty exact because the wall brackets have to align exactly with the stolmen brackets on both left and right shelves. even 1/8 inch (off) starts causing problems. also, it is rock solid and doesn’t jiggle at all when pulled on. it required 175 drill holes and 96 screws.”

13 Responses

Help–I have searched and searched and am an avid Ikea fan. Have loads of Timmerman glass door bookcases (not sold anymore)and other articles which fit very well with my antiques. However, I am looking to replace ancient wood shelving which I gerry-rigged into an antique pine cabinet. The dimensions make it difficult to find ready made adjustable shelves. The stolman poles do not work because the max height = 67″, width = 70″ , depth = 19″. Currently I have an estimate from The Shelf Shop for “custom” unit at about $1200 for 3 poles and 10 adjustable glass shelves. Any other options or ideas out there? Thanks. [email protected]

I loved the idea and want to do it myself but am having trouble figuring out how you attached it to the wall. You said you used “an extruded aluminum L shaped strip to the wall”. Anything else you can tell me about that?

I was really excited until I realised that the shelves were attached to the walls with invisible brackets – I know I would stuff that up with the measurements. Any ideas about a similar look without having to fix shelves to wall. I have also been looking for clean look shelves and is incredibly difficult (I am in Australia)

Ooh, really nice. Someone mentions above adapting this as a room divider. How would you go about doing that? Would you need double the number of poles? Any way to do it without doubling up? I’d like to do a room divider with single set of shelves (not two, as here), and I’m wondering if I could do it with just two poles? Any tips?